FA 102

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Are we not supposed to post this here or something?
I made a “music video” for a song of mine called “Mossbacks”. Using footage of Seattle and other areas of the PNW, I hoped to create a positive atmosphere behind friendly imagery that subtly hints at draws and drawbacks of city life.

The song is originally 11 minutes, so I made two edits: a 4:20 edit and a 2:30 edit
I recommend the short edit for class viewing purposes.

I like this piece I did at the beginning of the semester in this class. It was made with acrylic paints and sharpie pen. It’s very hard to see in the photo, but the way that the paint mixes on the face of the “mountain” in the middle is very realistic / surrealistic. Its smooth but varied and hints at the shape of a sharp mountain, with a light shadow cast down toward the point that the audience is viewing from. The sky is marked with splattered black paint. A black, wordless sign stands with its shadow created by finely splattered black paint.

Not only do I like the techniques I used to create this piece (taping off areas to control the splatter with very fine lines), but the otherworldly atmosphere always hits me when i look at it. The strange shadows and sky designs are interesting to the eye.

This piece, “The Thinker of Tender Thoughts” by Shel Silverstein, has always been one of my favorite pieces of art. My mother is a 4th grade teacher and absolutely loves old TV shows that carry subtle but important messages about how to be a good person and what-not. Shel Silverstein’s poems and art commonly have themes of being a free person or being a good person, but always stick to the comical side. Looking at it later in life, the message behind “the Thinker of Tender Thoughts” almost makes me want to cry, as it is so simple and relatable. Simple as lines on paper, the look on his face when he decides to fit in by cutting his wily hair is so expressive and content, whereas many other pieces that address this type of theme treat the “trimming” stage (“giving in to the man”) as a very negative thing.
I hope kids still have to read Shel Silverstein’s work because it is some very pure, happy work. I haven’t kept up on children’s book but I’d guess that few works surpass Shel Silverstein’s work in honesty, morality, and meaning.

“I will not play at tug o’ war.
I’d rather play at hug o’ war,
Where everyone hugs
Instead of tugs,
Where everyone giggles
And rolls on the rug,
Where everyone kisses,
And everyone grins,
And everyone cuddles,
And everyone wins.”

Children’s book author and illustrator, Chris Van Allsburg’s art haunted me as a child. Almost photorealistic, the images in “The Mysteries of Harris Burdick” are bleak and… mysterious. Black and white and very simple, they make you think. For example, the picture posted here says “the fifth one ended up in France”. The audience assumes the “fifth one” is another nun in a flying chair. There is no more explanation and there won’t be. Like a few other books that we read in our childhoods, this one skirted the edge between children’s book and down-right gloomy.

This is a word cloud of a quote by EE Cummings. I think that the word cloud design resounds well with EE Cummings’ personality and poetry style as he was generally random, goofy, or hard to understand,. The colors match well with the ideas of destruction and creation.